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Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays

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meeting has lapsed, I am forced in the interest of the truth<br />

<strong>to</strong> express my agreement with the above verdict of Rev.<br />

Hanssen [“Ambiguous and hazy…it is possible <strong>to</strong> read in<strong>to</strong><br />

their wording either the doctrinal conception of the<br />

Synodical Conference or the opposing conception of the<br />

ALC. And just for that reason they were and still are<br />

unacceptable <strong>to</strong> the synods of the Synodical Conference.”]<br />

The subject matter of these theses having been thoroughly<br />

discussed in several meetings of the committee and the<br />

Scripture truths having been established in the discussions,<br />

the representatives of the Synodical Conference found<br />

these very truths expressed in the proposed theses. In the<br />

light of the satisfac<strong>to</strong>ry oral discussions they seemed <strong>to</strong> be<br />

plain statements of the truth and entirely universal. To an<br />

outsider, who did not take part in the discussions, however,<br />

the ambiguities that nevertheless crept in<strong>to</strong> the phraseology<br />

are naturally more easy <strong>to</strong> detect. 204<br />

What is even more amazing is that in the very same issue of Quartalschrift,<br />

Meyer reports as well about the Minneapolis Theses, which established full altar and<br />

pulpit fellowship between Iowa, Buffalo and the Evangelical <strong>Lutheran</strong> Church. The very<br />

fact that Meyer confesses he was caught off guard by the announcement of the<br />

Minneapolis Theses shows again that <strong>Wisconsin</strong> and Missouri were unwittingly<br />

participating with church bodies that had a dual agenda. Even when they did recognize<br />

the dual agenda, they seemed unwilling <strong>to</strong> deal with the theological and practical<br />

ramifications.<br />

The pleas of the “minority” if the Norwegian Synod, who,<br />

for conscience sake could not enter in<strong>to</strong> the proposed<br />

union…were ignored, the members of the “minority,” both<br />

pas<strong>to</strong>rs and congregations were ruthlessly forced out of the<br />

synod, and have since been repeatedly molested in their<br />

peaceful church work. The wrong perpetrated by the former<br />

Norwegian Synod on the “minority” must certainly be<br />

righted before any church fellowshipping with the<br />

Norwegian <strong>Lutheran</strong> Church can find God’s approval. Are<br />

204 E.C. Fredrich, “<strong>Wisconsin</strong> Inter-Church Relations in the First Third of this Century.” <strong>Wisconsin</strong><br />

<strong>Lutheran</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong> On-line Essay File. http://www.wlsessays.net/files/FredrichCentury.pdf (Last accessed<br />

July 19, 2010).<br />

107

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